Toniic Institute Announces New CEO

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Toniic Institute, a nonprofit global organization of impact investors, announced today the selection of Adam S. Bendell as its next chief executive officer, commencing July 1, 2016. Bendell brings entrepreneurial, financial, operational, marketing and business development expertise to Toniic, along with experience managing global teams.

As CEO and co-founder of Strategic Discovery, a San Francisco–based consulting and technology company, Bendell successfully negotiated its acquisition in 2008 by FTI Consulting. He served as chief innovation officer with FTI Consulting until February 2016. Bendell is a seasoned impact investor whose personal impact themes include eldercare, plant-based food alternatives to factory farming, and business models across sectors that monetize data aggregation.

“The Toniic board was attracted to Adam’s previous success as a CEO, his track record of innovation, inspiring vision and drive for excellence—all balanced with a big heart,” said Lisa Kleissner, Toniic board chair. “We are confident that Adam has the skill, passion and vision to partner with our team, our members and our impact colleagues to take Toniic and the growing field of impact investing to a new level.”

“I am thrilled to have this unique opportunity to combine my experience in innovation and building businesses with my passion for impact investing,” said Bendell. “The field of impact investing is now irrevocably on the map, and Toniic is uniquely poised and ready to scale. Toniic has a major role to play across investor education, community building and capital deployment. The impact community looks to Toniic, one of the most trusted brands in the space, for leadership. Whether it’s for those of our members working to transition their portfolios to 100 percent impact investing, those who look to Toniic for opportunities to invest in direct deals and funds, or those just getting started in impact investing, Toniic sets the pace.”

Prior to working at Strategic Discovery, Bendell was president and co-founder of SV Technology, a knowledge-management software firm whose flagship product, LawPort, was acquired by SydneyPLUS International (now Lucidea). Before that, Bendell served as chief technology counsel at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. He graduated from Cornell University, was a visiting student at the London School of Economics, and received his juris doctor from the University of Chicago Law School. He resides in San Francisco with his wife, Tracy.

Alison Fort will continue to serve as acting CEO of Toniic until July 1, 2016, when she will resume her leadership duties as Toniic’s managing director for EMEA.

About Toniic Institute

Founded in 2010, Toniic Institute is the global action community for impact investors, with members in over 26 countries. Toniic provides family offices, high net worth individuals, institutions and corporations with access to investment opportunities, tools and thought leadership as they grow their impact investing practices. Toniic leverages its global member expertise in impact investing to produce open-access e-guides on topics such as crowd investing, early stage investing, and impact measurement. Toniic ImpactU provides transformational learning opportunities for impact investing around the globe for both members and nonmembers. For more information, visit www.toniic.com.